"Each generation, coming out of obscurity, must define its mission and fulfill or betray it." Frantz Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. {r}evolution

Our mission is to nurture the transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities. Through local, national and international networks of activists, artists and intellectuals we foster new ways of living, being and thinking to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Competent or incapable? By Shea Howell – Week 22 of the occupation

Thinking for ourselves

Competent or incapable?

By Shea Howell

September 3, 2013

Week 22 of the occupation

The new watch-words coming from the Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr are competence and efficiency. We are being told he is busy “streamlining” city government. He is eliminating cumbersome bureaucracies. His target this week is City Planning and Development.

People who care about the future of the city need to resist this effort to destroy democratic oversight in the name of competence and efficiency. We are getting neither. This is nothing more than a streamlined effort to funnel millions of dollars of public money into private hands.

The framework for moving development deals behind closed doors began with the much contested Consent Agreement. In this Agreement, the Bing administration consented to transferring most of the planning and development functions to the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation. The DEGC, headed by George Jackson, is a quasi public body.

It is hailed by the business community for its efficiency, competence, and effectiveness. Reporter John Gallagher of the Detroit Free Press noted recently, “The DEGC and Jackson have been widely praised by the business community for negotiating such deals as the renovation of the Book-Cadillac Hotel and recently announced arena and entertainment district for the Red Wings.”

These two deals, singled out as examples of the competence and effectiveness of the DEGC, have come under fire for their flawed, convoluted negotiation strategies. The only clear result is that that scare public money is finding its way into the pockets of a few wealthy individuals.

The Book Cadillac owners appear to have made no payments to the city for public money given to aid their development. The parent organization says the process of repayment is too complicated to discuss.

Meanwhile national news media reacted with startled outrage at yet another stadium deal in Detroit. Just six days after filing for bankruptcy, the state’s economic development authority gave a preliminary go ahead to sell $450 million in tax exempt bonds to finance a 650,000 square foot Arena for the Red Wings. The public will be responsible for three fifths of the total cost.

Further, the public money being made available to Red Wings owner and downtown developer Mike Illitch comes from a move by the right wing republican legislature last December. They revived the ability of the development authority to take school-tax revenue. Had the legislature not acted, the money would have reverted to public schools. Bloomberg News captured the tone of this deal in the headline “Detroit Billionaires Get Hockey Arena as Bankrupt City Suffers.”

We have all heard the tired justifications for this use of public money. It will create jobs, stimulate business and be the catalyst for the rebirth of our city. We’ve been hearing them since 1997 when right wing republican governor John Engler told us the new Tiger stadium would “symbolize our renewal.” We heard them when William Clay Ford said in 1999 that the new football stadium would “showcase the city’s turn around.” Right wing Governor Snyder is now telling us the same thing.

Our own experience, as well as strong academic evidence, shows that such strategies do not work.

These are development deals we are told reflect the competence and efficiency of the DEGC.

The truth is that the business interests behind the DEGC have a clear track record. They propose a quick fix to problems they helped create, then take public money to line their own pockets, leaving us with greater devastation.

The conflicts in our city today are about the kind of people we are, the kind of values we represent, and the kind of place we want to become. Will we continue to push people out of their homes in order to try yet another quick fix development scheme? Will we allow public money to be used for private gain?

These questions belong in the public sphere. They should be debated and discussed openly everywhere. Development Authorities at the state and city level are incapable providing democratic decision-making.

ON Being Krista Tippet

ON Being Krista Tippet
January 19, 2012
We travel to Detroit to meet the civil rights legend Grace Lee Boggs. We find the 96-year-old philosopher surrounded by creative, joyful people and projects that defy more familiar images of decline. It's a kind of parallel urban universe with much to teach all of us about meeting the changes of our time.
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Boggs Center 3061 Field St. Detroit, MI 48214

James and Grace Lee boggs Center To Nurture community Leadership
hpp//www.boggscenter.org / {r}evolution - the two side non-violent revolution in values.
The Boggs Center was founded in 1995 by friends and associates of James Boggs (1919 -1993) and Grace Lee Boggs (1915 - ) to honor and continue their legacy as movement activists and theoreticians.
Our aim is to help grassroots activists develop themselves into visionary leaders and critical thinkers who can devise proactive strategies for rebuilding and respiriting our cities and rural communities from the ground up, demonstrate the power of ideas in changing ourselves, our reality, and demystify leadership.